


A Home You Never Knew You Wanted

by Aria_Lerendeair



Series: Alec Lightwood Birthday Bash 2019 [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Determined Magnus, Happy Ending, Insecure Alec Lightwood, M/M, Pining, Red String of Fate, Season 1 Alec Lightwood, Season 1 Re-write, Soulmate AU, Wedding Kiss Now With Soulmates!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21643855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Lerendeair/pseuds/Aria_Lerendeair
Summary: The first time you touch your soulmate, a red string appears between the both of you, a constant tying together until it's fully acknowledged.Alec was attempting to ignore the warlock on the other end of his, constantly tugging, demanding to see him wanting what he couldn't give.  Until he couldn't ignore the pull any longer.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Referenced Alec Lightwood/Lydia Branwell
Series: Alec Lightwood Birthday Bash 2019 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560298
Comments: 23
Kudos: 459
Collections: Malec Favorites





	A Home You Never Knew You Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> wanting-wasting-and-woe wanted: Can I get a Soulmate!AU for Alec’s birthday? Please and thank you!
> 
> Okay, so this is a Red String of Fate Soulmate!AU with a wee bit of a twist. You don’t see your red string until you touch someone for the first time. And I’m doing some hand-wavy things with canon (because dammit that’s my job!), but the first time they’re going to touch is when they’re summoning the memory demon. 
> 
> This one is a little more loosey with story structure but I can’t get the idea out of my head, so I hope you still like it!
> 
> Art is by [Lamalefix](https://lamalefix.tumblr.com/)  
> and you can find the sourced Art on tumblr [HERE](https://lamalefix.tumblr.com/post/187683269729/can-i-get-a-soulmateau-for-alecs-birthday)!

~!~ A String Appears ~!~ 

  
The red string of fate was an old wives tale. Alec scoffed whenever he heard people, either shadowhunters, mundanes, or downworlders, talking about it. It was a distraction that wasn’t needed. With all of the people in the mundane and human world, how could there be one person out there for you, and only one person? 

  
Not to mention, how the hell did it know that you were perfect for each other? Was it a guess? Alec rolled his eyes and shook his head, focusing on what Magnus was saying about summoning the memory demon, and being careful not to let go during the ceremony. Right right, no problem. 

  
He watched everyone else link hands and frowned when he felt a jolt go through him from the warlock. He narrowed his eyes and focused on the demon in front of him, but then Jace’s face was playing in front of him and horror curled, dark and terrifying in his stomach and he let go - only just catching sight of a red thread out of the corner of his eye. 

  
He ignored his name being shouted and ran until he couldn't feel anything anymore. There’s no red string attached to his pinky, faint, but undeniably there. There isn’t. 

  
Especially not because of a very male, very _flirty_ warlock. 

~!~ A Tug ~!~ 

  
Alec feels the tug on the string, impatient and insistent, for the better part of an hour before he gets the call from Jace. He’s fighting the urge, the desire to go to Magnus, to find what he wants, because he knows there’s something that he needs and dammit he can’t stop _feeling_ it. 

  
Hearing Magnus need, no, demand his help, his, specifically, the tug gets more insistent, more desperate, and Alec can’t help but follow it. Seeing Magnus on the verge of collapse, his energy spent makes something in him tighten uncomfortably, and he’s kneeling next to the warlock, offering up his energy before he can think better of it. 

  
When their hands touch, the red string flares bright again, but Alec doesn’t have time to focus on it, because Magnus is pulling on his strength to heal Luke and it hurts without actually hurting. He feels the weight of it, of what Magnus needs and gives it to him, and gives him more, trying to make sure he doesn’t over-exert himself and cradles him gently, carefully, as he sags and nearly collapses.

  
Alec doesn’t stop to examine when he started to care about Magnus over-exerting himself. Or when he tells Magnus he’ll stay for a drink, then another. Or when he wakes up the next morning and tells Magnus he trusts him. It feels _wrong_ to do anything other than trust him with his whole mind, body and soul, screaming how trustworthy, how worth of love, he is. 

  
Then he has to go, and the thread pulls thin, and he can ignore it. 

~!~ Impossible to Ignore ~!~ 

  
Until he can’t anymore. 

  
Another small tug and Alec has to resist the urge to growl. He can feel it, beating a quiet tempo in the back of his head, his soul-no, no. He wasn’t about to use that word. Not yet. Not _ever_. 

  
But there it is again. The faintest of tugs in the direction of where the thread faded off into. _Tug_. _Tug_. A constant staccato of “I miss you, I want to see you, come see me” beating through his entire body until he has no choice but follow the call. Making his way to Magnus’ house feels like a mistake and a success all at once, especially once he is inside and surrounded by things that remind him of the warlock. 

  
“Alexander!” Magnus called, sprawled in one of his arm chairs, a glass of wine in one hand, the other-

  
Alec froze and stared. The red thread was tangled around his fingers and he, he was, he was _playing_ with it. The soft tug came again and Alec took an involuntary step forward. 

  
“What brings you by?” Magnus asked, raising both of his eyebrows as he stared at Alec. 

  
“You,” Alec muttered, walking closer as he was tugged _again_. “You’re, you’re…” he gestured to Magnus’ hands. “I can feel you thinking about me. About _it_.” 

  
“It,” Magnus scoffed, his eyes rolling. “Yes, the giant elephant in the room, the one that you refuse to address because-” 

  
“I’m not refusing to address it!” Alec snapped. “It just, it has to be a mistake!” 

  
Magnus froze, the thread tangled in his fingers falling in a pile to the floor. He stood up in a quick moment. “I think you can leave now, Alexander.” 

  
Alec huffed and glared at Magnus. “You don’t think it’s a mistake? That a warlock and a shadowhunter-” 

  
“No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s a mistake,” Magnus interrupted. 

  
Alec’s mouth went dry and he stared at Magnus, who still hadn’t turned to look at him. “Dammit, at least look me in the eyes!” 

  
“And what?!” Magnus snapped, his eyes flashing bright gold as he turned towards Alexander. “So you can tell me again the person I waited hundreds of years for is-” he cut himself off and looked away, forcing himself to take a deep breath. “Get the hell out of my house,” he ordered. 

  
Alec swallowed hard. He could feel the anger coming down the thread, making it pulse, painful and awkward. “Magnus.” 

  
Magnus deflated, his anger draining out of him. “Yes, Alexander?”

  
Alec wrapped his hand around the string coming from his finger, and gave a small tug. He watched as Magnus’ eyes flared wide and he grunted. 

  
Magnus sighed. “Please stop. That isn’t…isn’t helping.” 

  
“Magnus, what are we going to do?” 

  
“I’m not exactly experienced with this!” Magnus snapped. “I gave up on the idea of finding my soulmate centuries ago!” 

  
Alec stared at him and down at the thread. Magnus didn’t think it was mistake. That there was a reason they were tied together like this. An indication of how good they could be together. He’d heard all of the nonsense spewed by Izzy and others for years. 

  
“I believe,” Magnus said, taking a deep breath. “I asked you to leave.” 

  
The hard line of Magnus’ back was a dismissal and Alec stared at it for long seconds before he nodded, turning on his heel to leave. Once the door was between them again, the thread tugged on him, urging him to go back. It was different than the tugs Magnus gave. Now it was the simple urging to go back, that they were both hurting and they could stop hurting together. 

  
Alec ignored it. He was good at ignoring things. He’d done it for years. 

~!~ A Choice to Make ~!~ 

  
So he did what he did best. He went to his mother and told her he was ready to get married. The thread pulled so hard that he thought he wouldn’t be able to move for hours. In a matter of days he was engaged, and the wedding plans were in full swing, except for the small tugs, the reminder that Magnus was thinking of him, or that he was marrying the wrong person. 

  
Marrying someone else when you’d met your…well, it was…unheard of. Alec had looked it up. It spelled the death of a relationship. But it didn’t matter, there were other reasons this was destined to fail, but Lydia was, she was kind. That was more than most shadowhunter marriages. 

  
In his deepest, darkest dreams, where he woke up, the thread tangled around his hand, knowing that _he_ had been the one tugging that time, it wasn’t Lydia waiting at the altar, it was Magnus. When he woke from those dreams, he had to take a precious few seconds to let the fear and heartache die down before he shook apart. 

  
But he could ignore it. He trained harder, took more missions, more patrols, he stayed away from everyone and tried to lose himself in ignoring the thread that offered a constant, steady pull towards Brooklyn, towards a future that he couldn’t let himself have. 

  
The day before the wedding, he’d been ordered to remain in the Institute to finish the prep, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t spend his time training and away from everyone. But Izzy knew him better than anyone else. 

  
“Are you going to tell me what you’re running from?” 

  
Alec didn’t bother dignifying that with a response. What was the point? 

  
Izzy sighed and watched her brother as he kept training, until her eyes caught on a small gesture he made with one of his hands. Almost like he was touching a thread on his… A small gasp left her. When Alec’s judgmental eyes met hers, she covered her mouth in horror. “Alec, what are you doing?” 

  
Alec turned away from her and delivered another punch into the bag. “What has to be done.” 

  
“Have you met them?” Izzy asked, afraid of the answer. By Alec’s silence, she knew it as he kept punching. “Oh by the angel, Alec, you have to call off the wedding.” 

  
Alec shook his head. “No. No, I can’t.” 

  
Izzy glared at him. “Alec, if you tell everyone that you’ve found your-” 

  
“I haven’t found anything!” Alec snapped, turning to glare at her. “It’s a mistake. It has to be a mistake, and-” 

  
“Does it feel like a mistake?” Izzy interrupted, stepping in close to her brother, grabbing at his arm. “Or does it feel like you’ve always heard? Like coming home to a home you didn’t know you needed? Like hope and possibility all at once?” 

  
The memory of the angry flash of Magnus’ eyes made him turn away from the punching bag. He’d felt it. That faint flicker of possibility. Of someone who would push back, who could stand with him, not behind him, his equal in every way. Another impatient tug from the thread and Alec looked down at it. “It doesn’t matter.” 

  
Izzy huffed, her hands on her hips. “Alec, you can’t do this to you. You can’t do this to your soulma-” 

  
“Don’t say it,” Alec interrupted, his voice breaking the tiniest bit. If he admitted it, that Magnus Bane was his, his… He wouldn’t have the strength to do what he had to tomorrow. “Please Iz. Don’t say it.” 

  
She pursed her lips together and glared at him. “You have given your life up for the Clave, Alec. Sacrificed, again and again. You cannot let them take this too. You can’t. It’ll…” 

  
Alec stared at her, his heart pounding. He could feel what she was saying, and it scared him. How this might be enough to break him in a way he couldn’t come back from. He wrapped his hand around the string and resisted the urge to not just tug, but to pull, to run away with the amazing man waiting on the other end of it. 

  
“I know,” Alec said, his voice quiet as he turned back to the punching bag, breathing hard. “But I have to.” He pushed himself away from the punching bag, turning away from Izzy, heading out of the room. His had was swimming, and he rubbed angrily at his eyes as he sought the solace of a shower. He just had to ignore it for a little bit longer. Ignore the longing desperation that settled deeper and deeper into his chest every time he thought about Magnus. 

  
~

  
The morning of his wedding dawned bright and sunny. Alec _hated_ it. 

  
Even more, he hated how all the tension from the thread was gone. There was no tugging now. Magnus had given up. Was letting him go, to make the decision he had. Alec breathed out hard. He didn’t know what was worse, that Magnus had decided to let him go, or that he was finally getting what he’d been telling the bond for days. 

  
It made him sick. 

  
He pulled on the golden tuxedo, and oversaw the final preparations, before he was ordered to the church, by his mother. Over and over again, he had to resist the urge to tug at the thread between them, to feel that gentle tug that reminded him Magnus was thinking of him. But no, it was gone. He’d wanted it gone and now it was. 

  
The wedding was a blur, and Alec couldn’t focus on any of it, until the time came to apply the wedded union rune. This was it. It wouldn’t sever the thread, but it would come as close as possible. He held his wrist out to Lydia, but that movement pulled the thread taut and he turned the second he heard the door at the back of the church slam open. 

  
As Magnus turned the corner, the tautness became slack again, but Alec could see the thread hanging between the two of them, clear as day, as Magnus met his eyes. He heard Lydia calling his name, but he couldn’t look away from Magnus, from the thread wrapped not just around his finger, but his hand. 

_  
A home you never knew you wanted. You never knew you needed._

  
Magnus’ eyes met his and Alec swallowed. Found matches weren’t rare, but weren’t common either, and here his was, fighting for him. Demanding that he make the right choice. He stepped away from Lydia, towards the stairs of the altar. The thread went slack between them, and all it took was two simple rotations of his wrist, the gesture lost on no one in the wedding, to pull it taut again, to _pull_ Magnus towards him. 

  
Alec stepped off the altar, twisting his wrist again, ignoring the whispers, ignoring the surprise. The thread was pulsing with power, with promise, and there Magnus was, waiting for him at the other end. How could he have ever made any other choice? 

_**  
“The person I waited hundreds of years for.”  
** _

  
Alec started to walk back down the aisle, his heart pounding in time with the pulse of power from the thread between them. 

_**  
His soulmate.** _

  
Thinking the word for the first time, properly, sent a jolt of power down the bond between them and Alec started to grin, lengthening his stride as he moved past his mother. Magnus was still watching him, fear and hope warring in his eyes, and Alec was going to make sure he never looked like that again. 

  
Alec grabbed Magnus by the lapels of his jacket and yanked him into a kiss, the thread around their hands, tying them together, flaring bright enough for everyone, not just them, to see it. Just like that, the bond was wide open and he lost himself in the feeling of _right yes home, mine, soulmate, mine, please_ that was crashing through them both as they kissed and kissed. 

  
When the initial wave of power finally started to recede, and their thread was no longer visible to everyone, Alec pulled back and pressed his forehead against Magnus’, unable to keep from smiling a little. _Soulmate._ Magnus was his soulmate. 

  
“Took you long enough,” Magnus whispered, reaching up to wrap his arms around Alexander’s shoulders. 

  
Alec swallowed hard, nodding, afraid to look away from Magnus. “I’m sorry I made you wait even longer,” he whispered. 

  
Magnus tangled his fingers in Alec’s hair, tugging him into another kiss. “That kiss might have been worth it.” 

  
Alec couldn’t help the smile as he fell into the kiss again, the soulmate bond pulsing easily between them. _Soulmate. Hope. Safety. Home._ He was home, at last, for the first time in his life. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Criticisms welcome!
> 
> Come join a Multifandom Discord Server -  
> [The Fandom Playhouse!](https://discord.gg/82pvdE39fD)
> 
> You can find me here:  
> [AriaLerendeair](http://arialerendeair.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And on twitter over here:  
> [Aria_Lerendeair](https://twitter.com/Aria_Lerendeair)


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